Robotica

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Today we went to a special Japan exhibit at the Kennedy Center where we saw performances by robots. The 2 main robots we saw were the Toyota robot, which is called the Partner, and the Honda robot is which is called ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative MObility). The ASIMO can understand verbal commands, can walk on 2 feet, and can even run and kick a soccer ball. The Toyota robot is famous for being able to play a real trumpet upon which it played several songs.



Here is a video clip of it playing the trumpet - sorry for those of you with slow internet.

The downside to having all these cool things to see is everyone also goes to see these events and they bring their ill mannered children. The show was on a stage in a large room that must have had about 600 people in it. Arriving just minutes before the ASIMO performance began we were in the back of a huge crowd and could barely even see the robot except on the TV monitors they had set up throughout the room. The shows were 45 minutes apart so we decided we would outsmart the mob and make sure we had our spot in the front row 15 minutes before the performance started so we could get a front row view of the Partner. In the meantime we decided to see the other exhibits. There was two rooms set up near each other one painted yellow with black dots and the other black with yellow dots. We took a picture in one of the rooms.Checking the time we realized we had to hurry and get back to see the next show. We had to fight our way through throngs of people just to get back to the stage. We ended up near the front completely surrounded by a zillion people. But it was a good show and it was free. :)

After the show we saw another smaller robot made by Mitsubishi (I guess all the foreign car companies want to go into the robot business). This one was not quite as impressive but it could still talk and shake hands.



The weather was so nice we just couldn't stand staying indoors so we went outside and walked around for a little while looking for a place to get some lunch. On the way out lo and behold some of the trees were blooming! We took a picture because we have never even heard of trees blooming so early!